The emerging new world order is seeing the growing influence of Iran, Russia and Turkey, evidenced by last month’s Sochi Summit attended by their presidents for achieving a political settlement of the Syria conflict, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.
Speaking at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum on future scenarios in international politics on Tuesday, Gabriel said the Sochi Summit was emblematic of how “the old empires are rising” again.
“The great powers who met in Sochi are no friends. But they have things in common. Each of them promotes its historical greatness both at home and abroad,” Anadolu News quoted the top German diplomat as saying.
The three countries, as guarantors of the peace process in Syria, discussed in the November meeting proposals for holding a congress of national dialogue, which will bring to the table both the Syrian government and opposition groups willing to enter into talks with Damascus.
If they manage to achieve a dialogue-based solution to the worst manmade calamity of the 21st century, the Syria crisis will be the first conflict settled without the participation of western powers in decades.
Acknowledging the trio’s greater influence in Syria and the Middle East, Gabriel said the three countries are paying the cost of raising their power in the world.
“They are in a way ready to pay a kind of a tax for the status of being a great power ... Economic losses, diplomatic tensions, financial penalties, sanctions, many such things are accepted by them to uphold their claim to regional leadership and to demonstrate their national sovereignty,” he argued.
Putting the blame on the US foreign policy, Gabriel said the Americans ceded their leadership role and the power vacuum in the Middle East and Africa is being increasingly filled by other powers.
“We see that the competitors are not sleeping,” he said, claiming that China had significantly increased its influence in Africa, while Russia, Turkey and Iran have carved out a stronger role in shaping developments in the Middle East.
Gabriel called on European countries to strengthen the European Union as a strong political actor by actively participating in the formation of a new multipolar world order and taking more responsibility in global affairs.
